MartialTalk.Com Advisory Board

Datu Tim Hartman
(Advisor - FMA)

Datu Timothy J. Hartman

After the passing of the founder of Modern Arnis, Grand Master Remy Amador Presas, Datu Tim Hartman became the most sought after instructor of this dynamic martial art. Datu Hartman currently conducts seminars throughout the United States and Canada, as well as England, Germany, Sweden and Denmark.

Tim Hartman has had a long and exciting martial arts career. His journey started as a teenager when he started training at a Modern Arnis school and fell in love with the art from the very first class. It wasn’t long before he caught the eye of Professor Presas. After Tim earned his brown belt Grand Master Presas took him as his personal student and protégé. Not long after this Grand Master Presas had Hartman assist him at seminars and camps throughout the United States and Germany. In time Professor Presas took to calling Tim “anak,” the word for “son” in the Tagalog dialect of the Philippines.

Impressed with Hartman’s technical skills, Professor Presas started trusting Tim with administrative duties. He directed Tim to form the Can-Am (Canadian – American) chapter of the International Modern Arnis Federation in order to help develop schools along the Canadian American border. As Can-Am’s director Hartman was able to positively impact the development of instructors throughout the region.

After establishing a successful instructors development program Hartman spearheaded a movement to bring Modern Arnis to the competitive arena by taking members of his youth program to the local tournaments. On their first outing his team dominated the sparring divisions. Soon they hosted and competed in full contact tournaments and weapons matches. Hartman himself became an international tournament champion, a tournament promoter, and a popular referee throughout the US, Canada, Scandinavia, and England.

Following his venture into the sport world, Hartman put his focus back on the art of Modern Arnis and continued his development as an instructor. Working with Professor Presas around North America and Europe also allowed Tim to study other systems with some of the best instructors in the martial arts world. Among these are Grand Master Wally Jay, Grand Master Ron Van Browning, and Dr. Maung Gyi. Eventually Hartman met one of Professor Presas’ classmates from the Philippines, Balintawak Escrima Grand Master Ted Buot. With Professor Presas’ blessings Grand Master Buot took Tim on as a personal student.

Tim’s proudest moment was during his 6th degree black belt test at the 2000 Michigan Modern Arnis Camp. Following the test Professor Presas announced that Hartman’s promotion was the highest tested belt in over 17 year’s. Professor Presas added that this made Tim his top ranked student in the United States. He also awarded Hartman the title of Datu (chieftain or leader). There have only been six people in the world awarded this title by Remy Presas.

After Professor Presas’ retirement due to illness Hartman formed the WMAA (World Modern Arnis Alliance) in order to preserve and continue the progression of the art of Modern Arnis. He is currently the WMAA’s President and Technical Director.

The World Modern Arnis Alliance's Board of Directors promoted Tim Hartman to 9th degree black belt on June 4th, 2005.

The title of "Grandmaster" has been reserved for Remy Presas alone.

Professor Bob White
(Advisor - Kenpo)

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Professor Bob White
Years in Martial Arts - 37
Current Rank - 9th Degree
Rank Promoted by Ed Parker - 7th Degree
Hobbies - Running, Tennis, Big Game Fishing and Skiing

As a competitor and as a teacher and coach, Professor Bob White has contributed to the art of Kenpo in particular the fighting arts, for over thirty years.

As a competitor, Professor White won numerous state, national, and international fighting championships. He fought on the first International Kenpo Karate Association's team, defeating the Chuck Norris team for 1st Place at the International Karate Championships. He fought on the National All Star Black Belt Team which went undefeated in 1973 and 1974. During this time, he competed with and against some of the great champions of our sport such as the Urquidez Brothers, Brian Strain, Bob Alegria, Tom Kelly, Steve Fisher, Steve LaBounty, Howard Jackson, Darnel Garcia, Bob Mitchell, John Natividad, Ron Marchini and many more.

Professor White began teaching Kenpo in 1968 at the Ed Parker School in Garden Grove, California and first opened his own school in 1972. He has consistently turned out some of the world's finest Kenpo fighters. Every year in the 1990s, his students accounted for at least one of the Black Belt Grand Champions at the International Karate Championships. Over the past 25 years, the school has won more than 1200 trophies at the International Karate Championships.

Professor White advised and acted in Columbia Pictures' "The Karate Kid" movie in the mid 80's and was hired by the then Los Angeles Rams to teach Kenpo to players; he continues to work with many professional athletes.

Professor White provides seminars on a wide range of Kenpo-related subject including sparring and special self-defense presentation. At the present time, Professor White, along with long time student [27 years] Captain‚ Ron Sanchez, a 22-year veteran police officer, offer a seminar series on "Urban Predators".

Professor White is headquartered in Costa Mesa, California but has affiliated schools all over the U.S. and teaches Kenpo all over the world.

MT Advisory Board 2003 to Present

Dennis Conatser
(Advisor - Kenpo)

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Dennis Conatser
30+ Years In American Kenpo

Dennis Conatser studied Judo in 1967 for a short period of time but his formal martial arts training (American Kenpo) began in August 1971, under the direction of Mr. Lonny Coots in Tempe, Arizona. He remained with Mr. Coots (started his studio in June 1974) until he achieved his 1st Degree Black on February 14th, 1976. Mr. Coots then directed Mr. Conatser to study with Mr. Gary L. Swan, President of the National Chinese Kenpo Karate Association (NCKKA) in San Antonio, Texas. After a brief period of time (a little over 1 year), Mr. Conatser elected to study with Mr. Steve LaBounty, then Senior Advisor to the NCKKA and past resident and Founder. This relationship lasted only a short period of time, at which the opportunity arose to study directly with the Founder of American Kenpo and Mr. LaBounty's instructor, Mr. Edmund K. Parker in mid 1979. Mr. Conatser then began studies and became one of the very few Kenpo instructors of the past decade that studied directly with Mr. Parker, even staying at his house as a guest. This relationship continued until Mr. Parker's untimely passing in December 1990.

Mr. Conatser continues to be active in teaching, researching, developing, and exploring all aspects of American Kenpo. While studying the Art of Kenpo, Mr. Conatser has had vast experience in many areas, to name a few: Competition, Promoting Events, Teaching, Writing, Traveling all around the United States, England, & Australia with Mr. Parker and interacting with several other notable Black Belts such as Steve LaBounty, Tom Kelly, Frank Trejo, Bob White, Skip Hancock, John Sepulveda, Diane Tanaka, Lee Wedlake, Huk Planas, Craig McCoy, Joe Palanzo, Jeff Speakman, Larry Tatum, Paul Mills, Gary Swan, Ralph Castellanos, Gil Hibben, Bryan Hawkins, Bob Liles, Mike Pick, Ron Chapel, Harvey Clarey, Tom Riskas, Tom Connor Sr. & Jr., Steve "Nasty" Anderson, Ray Sua, Byong Yu, Joe Lewis, Mike Stone, Chuck Norris, Bill Wallace, John Natividad, Pat Johnson, Steve Sanders, Al Decascos, Eric Lee, Anthony Chan, Cynthia Rothrock, James Lew, Y.C.Wong, Paulie Zink, Ark Wong, Ted Tabura, Benny Urquidez, Brendan Lai, Wally Jay, Robert Trias, Tom Schlessinger, Robert Haliberton, Roy Kurban, George Chung, Roberta Trias Kelly and many, many others. Mr. Conatser has also trained many International and State Champions proving his technique teaching methods are valid to anyone that will devote time and effort into learning and practicing the challenging and awesome art of American Kenpo.

Having placed at the prestigious Long Beach Internationals several times himself as well as being a 5 time Arizona State Champion in Forms, Breaking, and Sparring. Mr. Conatser has produced two of the States finest Karate Tournaments: The Arizona State Open Karate Championships and the Fiesta Bowl Karate Classic (now Fiesta Karate Classic). Mr.Conatser now devotes much of his time to the International Kenpo Karate Organization, which he founded in 1991. Like his teachers he is currently engaged in several projects, and is currently writing several books on American Kenpo and his experiences. "To keep American Kenpo alive and expanding is now my journey and obligation ......... "He" would have wanted it that way"

MT Advisory Board 2003 to Present

Michael Billings
(Advisor - Kenpo)

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Michael Billings
5th Degree Black Belt
Over 30 years in the arts

Michael Billings is a 5th Degree Black Belt in Ed Parker’s American Kenpo Karate. He is privileged and honored to be a student of Tommy Burks, a longtime private student of Mr. Parker's. Starting Kenpo in 1979, he has trained consistently in Kenpo for over 27 years. With 30 plus years in Chinese and American Kenpo ... and various other martial arts, including Japanese Shotokan Karate (1971) and Korean Tae-Kwon-Do (1974 with Michael Usulton and Dashiek Kim), he opened the doors on his Austin school in November 1997.

Rick Manglinong
(Advisor - FMA)

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Grandmaster Rick Manglinong

9th Dan GrandMaster Instructor - Kombatan

5th Dan Blackbelt Tae Kwon Do

6th Dan Modern Arnis
(Remy A. Presas)

Other Martial Arts Studied
and Practiced:

Filipino “boksing”, Western Boxing, Muay Thai Kickboxing,
Kenpo Karate, Shotokan Karate, Freestyle Wrestling, Judo,
Eskrima (Serrada), Silum Pai Kung Fu

Experienced in Competitive Boxing, Freestyle Wrestling, and Tournament Karate.

Experience in creating martial arts demonstrations and fight scenes in demonstrations.

Has taught martial arts for over 20 years with wife Christina. School opened in 1976 (Founded by Chris Manglinong).

MT Advisory Board 2003 to Present

Master Rich Parsons

Rich teaches Modern Arnis and Balintawak at the Flint Club, Privates out of his Home and at various seminars around the country (* USA *) and in Ontario, Canada.

Rich began his official martial arts training in August of 1986. Before this time frame and during the early part of his training, he bounced and was involved in other altercations. One of his ideas for learning a martial arts was to learn how not to break/hurt his opponents. The disarms and weapons techniques combined with the judo and jujitsu like moves gave him options in dealing with people other than pure strength. He obtained his basic instructors certificate in July of 1987, and has been teaching Modern Arnis in some fashion since. Senior Master Power, (Jim), believes that one of the options, of learning, is to teach. Rich has done well in this environment. The Flint group did attend camps and seminars to see GM Remy Presas, and they also had private and semi-private seminars where GM Remy Presas would come in and teach them. This allowed for less students and more contact time with a slight increase to cost. The Flint group had the privilege to test in front of GM Remy Presas in their club. After the untimely death of GM Remy A. Presas, Jim continued to test (* with Senior Master Jeff Owens as well, now retired for health reasons *) those students associated with this club. Rich has taught at numerous events in Michigan as well as in Ontario Canada, Buffalo, New York, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Rich began his Balintawak training April of 1998. He trained with Manong Ted Buot of Southfield Michigan weekly and also with the other students of Balintawak int the Flint Club/Group. Rich began also working with others in Michigan, Buffalo, Philadelphia and anywhere else he could to better improve his understanding of this art. He would play with people of other systems to try to understand the differences between them and Balintawak as well as the Modern Arnis he already knew. Rich currently works out with the Flint Group in Balintawak and also teaches privates to a couple of Manong Ted's students who are looking to continue their education in the system. Rich and other students of Manong Ted are working to preserve this art and system, now that Manong Ted is no longer able to teach due to a series of strokes that left his left side paralyzed.

MT Advisory Board 2008 to Present
MT Administrator and Moderator 2003-2006

About Kirk Lawson:

Kirk Lawson is a leading member of the Western Martial Arts community, participating as both a scholar and practitioner. Originally a 20-year verteran of the Asian Martial Arts with Ranks in Tang Soo Do, Akido and Judo, Kirk had turned his attention to the historical martial systems originating primarily in Europe and also in America. In addition to his interest and practice of classical pugilistic (boxing) methods, Kirk is a leading member of the Bartitsu Society (a group studying the 19th Century fusion of English Boxing, French Savate, the Vigny Walking Stick System, and Japanese JuJitsu), a student of the Tomahawk and Bowie Knife (from the American Frontier period), and a Free-Scholar in the Cumann Bhata (Irish Stick Fighting Society).

In addition to leading his Western Martial Arts study-group "Cumann Bhata-Dayton", Kirk regularly transcribes and reproduces historical Western Martial Arts Manuals, providing free electronic versions online. Kirk's original works include his contributions to Volumes I& II of the Bartitsu Compendium, and the authorship of "Banned From Boxing! The forgotten grappling techniques of historic Pugilism".

MT Advisory Board 2008 to Present